Viscera Cleanup Detail is the next ridiculous game you'll have to play

Viscera Cleanup Detail points out a longstanding social implication buried within some of our favorite shooters: Who cleans up the blood, guts and flesh left behind by our violent rampages through facilities invaded by hostile aliens? In this game, it's you.

Viscera Cleanup Detail is a first-person space-based janitor simulator, starring you as a rubber-gloved person tasked with cleaning up the remnants of an epic battle, including chunks of meat, pools of blood and bullet shells. It comes out of a 10-day game jam from developer Runestorm, and it's available in alpha for PC right now.

"It was a long and horrific battle as the survivor dueled with all manner of horrific life-forms and alien mutations, but our hero won out in the end and destroyed the alien menace!" Runestorm writes. "Humanity was saved! Unfortunately, the alien infestation and the heroic efforts of the courageous survivors have left rather a mess thoughout the facility. As the janitor, it is your duty to get this place cleaned up."

Viscera Cleanup Detail hopes it can clear away a spot on Steam Greenlight.

Gallery: Viscera Cleanup Detail

Viscera Cleanup Detail is the next ridiculous game you'll have to play originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 11 Jul 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gamestop: 'Xbox has said that they do support' used games market

Gamestop's approach to the Xbox One's nebulous pre-owned game policies - which may include charging players a fee for booting up a used game - involves emphasis on digital adaptation, and letting Microsoft do the talking.

"I figured that question would come up," Gamestop President Tony Bartel said during a financial call's Q&A segment. "Definitely Xbox has said that they do support the trade-in/resale games at retail and that they want to handle communication from this point forward on that. I think what is important to note is that all three of the consoles that have launched have now come back and they say, 'I realize the value of the buy-sell-trade model,' and they have built that into their new consoles moving forward. We anticipate that we are going to be able to leverage that, like we leverage it on the consoles today."

Microsoft has yet to clear up its used-game policy with the Xbox One, including whether it will charge a fee for pre-owned playtime. Gamestop generates the majority of its profit from used game and hardware sales, and following Microsoft's Xbox One event, Gamestop's stock fell five percent.

Responding to another Xbox One question, Gamestop executives noted that its stores have systems for selling digital content, and they've sold digital products in the past.

"Digital content can be easily discovered," Bartel said. "We will actually work with Microsoft and we will work with Sony as they come out with - I guess what you would call 'non-gaming entertainment properties.' We'll be selling those in our store." Customers will be able to pay for this content with trade-in currency, other executives said.

In the previous generation transition, Gamestop saw people trade in all of their old games and systems to start fresh, and said it expected customers to do the same this time around. In the first 48 hours after the Xbox One's reveal, 250,000 people signed up for Gamestop's first-to-know list.

"There's lots of rumors out there," Bartel said. He later continued, "I, for one, am very interested in what they're going to say at E3."

Aren't we all?

Gamestop: 'Xbox has said that they do support' used games market originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 23 May 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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David Jaffe consulting on Autoduel, multiplayer car combat game coming to Kickstarter

Noted Twisted Metal and God of War designer David Jaffe has signed on with Pixelbionic, a new independent games studio formed in southern California late last year. Jaffe will take a creative advisory role to aid in Pixelbionic's first game, Autoduel - an online vehicular combat game for the PC that will seek funding on Kickstarter sometime soon.

On the advisory board, Jaffe is joined by Zack Norman, the creator of Interstate '76, and Chanel Summers, a sound expert who helped design the audio systems of the Xbox hardware. There isn't much detail in the press release past the break about Autoduel itself, other than it's a team-based affair set in the post-apocalypse (of course) with "RPG-influenced persistence and progression gameplay."

Pixelbionic was founded by Maxx Kaufman - a founding member of inXile Entertainment with a long list of games to his name such as The Bard's Tale, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the Redneck Rampage series - and Mike Arkin, who served as producer for many studios, including a stint at Fox Interactive where he helped on Die Hard Trilogy, ID4 and Aliens vs. Predator.

Gallery: Autoduel

Continue reading David Jaffe consulting on Autoduel, multiplayer car combat game coming to Kickstarter

David Jaffe consulting on Autoduel, multiplayer car combat game coming to Kickstarter originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 16 May 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The top SpyParty player is a fighting game guy from EVO 2012

Four months before SpyParty debuted at EVO 2012's Indie Showcase, convention founder Seth Killian threw down a gentlemen's bet with SpyParty creator Chris Hecker: "An EVO attendee will be your No. 1 player in subsequent tests, and take down whoever the existing top players might be."

Hecker took the bet. One year later, SpyParty is on its way to EVO 2013, and Hecker owes Killian a beer.

SpyParty is slow-paced for a one-on-one "fighting game," but it requires the same mad obsession with detail prevalent in many fighting games. Players are either the spy or the sniper: As the spy they must blend in with a room of AI characters attending a fancy party and complete tasks unbeknownst to the sniper. The sniper has to spot the human character with enough certainty to shoot it before the other player completes all the tasks.

The top SpyParty player in the world is Korey Mueller, AKA "kcmmmmm" (pictured above, standing in the blue button-down), and as a lifelong fighting game fan, it's fitting that he first heard about SpyParty at EVO 2012. Since the convention, Mueller has played 6,436 games of SpyParty and has spent 262 hours in-game, with 1,020 hours total log-in time. The player that comes closest to these numbers clocks in at 5,151 games and 213 hours in-game.

After picking out which beer he's going to buy Killian, Hecker asked Mueller about his fighting game roots and how he thinks SpyParty fits into the fighting game community.

"There's always this feeling that there's some way I can improve, and every time I meet a personal goal, I find another one," Mueller tells Hecker. "I couldn't really look at the game and decide to be a top player, I just wanted to continue to improve - and at some point, I guess I got pretty decent at it. Now that you mention it, 6,000 games is a lot."

Yeah, it is.

Continue reading The top SpyParty player is a fighting game guy from EVO 2012

The top SpyParty player is a fighting game guy from EVO 2012 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Jul 2013 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Keeping your eyes open in the cold of Company of Heroes 2

After navigating a troubled road alongside former owner and publisher THQ, developer Relic Entertainment has found a new home for its library of titles with Sega. Though shifting to a new company with different policies and directives could hurt a studio's progress, a recent mission playthrough at E3 tells us that Company of Heroes 2 has not suffered in the transition.

Last December, Relic previewed the seasonal combat on show in the multiplayer mode (which has been in open beta for most of June), its E3 demo for Company of Heroes 2 focused on a single-player mission, one based on the historic Battle of Leningrad between the Russians and Germans in World War 2. In addition to Relic's RTS design expertise in action, the mission had a new technology on display: a feature known as "TrueSight." Using this new system, darkened areas of a map only become visible based on the realistic line of sight a soldier has on the battlefield, with terrain and objects able to obstruct their views to the dangers that lie in wait.

Gallery: Company of Heroes 2 (E3 2013)

Continue reading Keeping your eyes open in the cold of Company of Heroes 2

Keeping your eyes open in the cold of Company of Heroes 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 24 Jun 2013 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Game & Wario review: Weary-o ware

Wario's been with us for two whole decades, and in that time, Nintendo has used Mario's Garbage Pail Kids variant to disrupt some pretty fundamental gameplay ideas - especially in endlessly inventive portable series like Wario Land and WarioWare. As made evident by its E3 2013 lineup, though, Nintendo has placed less of a priority on tinkering during the Wii U generation, instead focusing on producing sequels to established series. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Game & Wario is essentially a reworked Nintendo Land.

Like Nintendo Land, Game & Wario features an assortment of GamePad-friendly mini-games, each one offering a novel way to use the console's controller. If you've played Nintendo Land, however, some of Game & Wario's games may strike you as a little too familiar. "Ski," for instance, plays a hell of a lot like Nintendo Land's miniaturized version of F-Zero. Some of the games call to mind Nintendo's legacy as an outstanding arcade developer, though the majority don't dare progress beyond the baby steps established by Game & Wario's tech demo predecessor.

Gallery: Game and Wario (E3 2013)

Continue reading Game & Wario review: Weary-o ware

Game & Wario review: Weary-o ware originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 21 Jun 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Reconstructing crimes in Batman: Arkham Origins

Warner Bros. Montreal is bringing a new side-mission distraction to Batman: Arkham Origins that will pique the interests of those who've enjoyed the forensic focus of Rocksteady's games. At E3 I put on my detective cowl to try out the new "Crime Reconstruction" mechanic.

It began, as it so often does, on a rooftop on a cold Gotham night. As Batman, I saw a police helicopter rise from behind the ledge, ordering me to surrender. Even if I wanted to, a gunshot took the helicopter down before I could respond. It spiralled out of control, tailspinning several stories into the icy street below. Confused, I swooped down to look for survivors. The helicopter was wrecked, and I found a body flung a few feet away: the dead pilot.

This is where the crime reconstruction began. First I analysed the body in Detective Mode with the Evidence Scanner, which takes in all of the crime scene's data in hyper-quick time to play Columbo within seconds. As I scanned, I saw the helicopter's crash trace back in time, in suitably cool-looking virtual blue bittiness. As it replayed, I saw the copter take out a first-story ledge before crashing into the earth below. Scanning the body, I learned he died on impact, and not from the gunshot.

Gallery: Batman: Arkham Origins (E3 2013)

Continue reading Reconstructing crimes in Batman: Arkham Origins

Reconstructing crimes in Batman: Arkham Origins originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 14 Jun 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Returning to simpler days with Disgaea D2

Nearly ten years ago, a quirky little game called Disgaea: Hour of Darkness put developer Nippon Ichi on the map for lovers of Japanese RPGs - the ones from America, anyway. This quirky strategy RPG combined Final Fantasy Tactics with a Tim Burton-inspired aesthetic, and just as the genre seemed to be fading from relevance. Nippon Ichi capitalized on the success of Disgaea by opening up an American branch months later, and continued to iterate on their particular brand of complex and bizarre mechanics.

For some (like myself), Nippon Ichi's prolific nature soon became a case of diminishing returns, and their audience gradually checked out from the company's regular forays into strategy RPG territory. Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness for PlayStation 3 stands as the developers' attempt to recapture that magic of 2003 with a spirtual remake of the game that made them, and by all accounts looks to be treading some very safe waters.

This might not be a bad thing, though; just as the New Super Mario Bros. series added a fresh coat of paint to old-school action, Disgaea D2 has the same intent. The latest installment to the series acts as a direct sequel to the first game, complete with the same mechanics and characters, but with an entirely new story.

Gallery: Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness

Continue reading Returning to simpler days with Disgaea D2

Returning to simpler days with Disgaea D2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 13 Jun 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No 'game over' in Beyond: Two Souls, but Jodi can die

There is no "game over" in Beyond: Two Souls - the screen never fades to black, there's no inspirational quote in sight, and, most importantly to creator David Cage, the story doesn't come to a complete stop.

"I've always felt that 'game over' is a state of failure more for the game designer than from the player," Cage told me at Gamescom. "It's like creating an artificial loop saying, 'You didn't play the game the way I wanted you to play, so now you're punished and you're going to come back and play it again until you do what I want you to do.' In an action game, I can get that - why not? It's all about skills. But in a story-driven experience it doesn't make any sense."

Instead, Cage said he focused on giving consequences to failures without hindering the narrative. In one scene, two police officers hunt down Jodi, the protagonist, on a moving passenger train. Jodi is able to circumvent the officers and run away, leading to an intense standoff on the roof of the speeding train. "Failing" this scene means the cops capture Jodi before she has a chance to bolt, and in the standard video game design scheme, this would mean cut, fade to black and try again. In Beyond, players are given an alternate story path, this time where Jodi is locked in a train car with the officers standing guard, and she has to escape.

Players who "fail" the train scene won't see the rooftop battle, but those who "beat" it won't experience the escape narrative. In at least one of these scenarios, a path can lead to Jodi's death. This raises a question that humankind has asked itself for eons: What happens when we die?

"It's a game about death, so you can imagine that death plays a role in all of this," Cage said. "Actually, it's one of the big discoveries - one of the big mysteries in the game is to discover what's on the other side. And it's definitely not a black screen."

Continue reading No 'game over' in Beyond: Two Souls, but Jodi can die

No 'game over' in Beyond: Two Souls, but Jodi can die originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 22 Aug 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Crowdfund Bookie July 2013: Role-playing pays off

The Crowdfund Bookie crunches data from select successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo campaigns that ended during the week and produces pretty charts for you to look at.

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You could argue that July was a down month in terms of total money raised for video game projects through crowdfunding. While June saw $5,594,469 raised by 23 projects, July's 42 gaming projects earned $2,755,376. Of course, June also had two games in Hex and Massive Chalice that comprised over half of the month's earnings. Without those two games, June and July are much more comparable, as seen with some of the trends spotted in June that carried over to last month.

Of the money raised by crowdfunders in July, 48.49 percent was over the combined goals for projects, a dip from June's 55.69 percent. This may be attributed to the extra crowdfunding week in the month of July (which included successfully funded projects tracked from June 30 through August 3). Without the final week, which accounted for a whopping 10 games, a four-week July would have seen an excess of 58.43 percent of its money raised. That fifth week of funding flattened the month out by ten percent. Whether the total amount raised would gradually decline to meet the combined goals of projects is unknown, but it's a trend we'll certainly keep an eye out for in August.

Funders in July also averaged $44.82 per pledge, another significant dip from June's average of $57.11. With the drop-off in both money raised and mean average also came a decrease in the overall number of backers for July. Compared to June's 97,954 funders, July had 61,473. A large chunk were devoted to the 11 RPG projects that were funded last month, as 25,422 backers raised $1,056,158 for the genre. Lastly, the statistically-extreme group of players that backed three shooter games in June with an average of $94.72 per pledge returned in July to average $91.75 for the genre. It'll be interesting to see whether that trend holds up for August as well.

You'll find the month's breakdown by genre after the break, as well as a list of July's top five projects.

Continue reading Crowdfund Bookie July 2013: Role-playing pays off

Crowdfund Bookie July 2013: Role-playing pays off originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 06 Aug 2013 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Project Spark expected to add Kinect gameplay too, says producer

At Gamescom, Team Dakota gave me a quick demonstration of how to animate characters using Kinect motion capture in the Xbox One game-maker Project Spark. I've got to say, there are few things that have given me more pleasure in Cologne than watching a game designer pretend to be a troll, stomping his feet and gesturing angrily at the screen - the irony wasn't lost.

The demo worked great, the on-screen troll reflecting software engineer Eddie Parker's exaggerated stomping with a palpable accuracy. The mo-cap is just another facet of Project Spark, and the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Windows 8 game continues to ooze potential. At the demo I saw a visually authentic recreation of Limbo, one that Team Dakota was able to seamlessly switch from black-and-white 2D platformer to lush, tropical-looking first-person adventure with just a few clicks. As closed alpha has shown, people can make all kinds of things in Project Spark: third-person RPGs, shooters, even god games. Parker told me one member of Team Dakota put together a Sim City-like game.

Given the Kinect integration and the game's apparent flexibility, I asked executive producer Sax Persson if Team Dakota was considering implementing Kinect for gameplay control too. Sure enough, the studio is, and has explored the idea recently.

"We expect over time that we're going to add that," said Persson, although he stipulated that mo-capping character animation was first priority.

"When I saw the new Kinect and the specs for it, and got to try it the first time, for me it was obvious that I wanted to put myself in the game. You know, I wanted to be able to make movies with it. We tried to find what's the lowest barrier for entry for people to express themselves, right. Getting up and acting out a scene and making machinima has been a great avenue for people to express themselves for a long time."

At Gamescom, Team Dakota announced Project Spark will enter its beta phase on Windows 8 in October, and then on Xbox One in January. That beta will help guide which new features, like Kinect gameplay, will come to the game.

"Part of the reason why we're in beta is to hear what people want to make," said Persson. "If everybody tells us that we need to make it so I can play my Kinect games, then that's the next thing we do."

Project Spark expected to add Kinect gameplay too, says producer originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 24 Aug 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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